Virginia Lawmakers Say Watching Porn Leads to Having Group Sex

This week, Virginia state lawmakers introduced a piece of legislation to combat what they believe to be an increasingly perilous threat to society: big, bad porn. Resolution HJ549, proposed by the House Committee on Health, Welfare, and Institutions, suggests pornography leads to “individual and societal harms.” More specifically, it mentions the hypersexualization of teenagers, infidelity, and even group sex.

Of course, it may not be hard to find a porn aficionado who has indulged in the occasional orgy, but it’s decidedly more difficult to find data proving that porn points its users in that direction. That’s because no such data exists. In fact, group sex doesn’t even rank in the top ten most searched terms across porn platforms. Statistics show that categories like “MILF” and “massage” are more likely to take the top spots. (Check out more illuminating search data from Pornhub.)

The resolution, which is now on its way to the Senate, also states that pornography can lead to sex addiction—a claim that’s been largely rejected by the academic community. Should the resolution be approved, the state General Assembly would have to recognize porn as a potentially harmful medium.

But what the resolution fails to address is why politicians want to police things like group sex in the first place. Lighten up, Virginians. Go watch some porn.

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